July 23, 2009
J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu
RELEASE: 09-171
NASA CELEBRATES CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY
WASHINGTON -- Ten years ago, on July 23, 1999, NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory was launched aboard the space shuttle Columbia and
deployed into orbit. Chandra has doubled its original five-year
mission, ushering in an unprecedented decade of discovery for the
high-energy universe.
With its unrivaled ability to create high-resolution X- ray images,
Chandra has enabled astronomers to investigate phenomena as diverse
as comets, black holes, dark matter and dark energy.
"Chandra's discoveries are truly astonishing and have made dramatic
changes to our understanding of the universe and its constituents,"
said Martin Weisskopf, Chandra project scientist at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The science that has been generated by Chandra -- both on its own and
in conjunction with other telescopes in space and on the ground --
has had a widespread, transformative impact on 21st century
astrophysics. Chandra has provided the strongest evidence yet that
dark matter must exist. It has independently confirmed the existence
of dark energy and made spectacular images of titanic explosions
produced by matter swirling toward supermassive black holes.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Chandra, three new versions of
classic Chandra images will be released during the next three months.
These images, the first of which is available Thursday, provide new
data and a more complete view of objects that Chandra observed in
earlier stages of its mission. The image being released today is of
E0102-72, the spectacular remains of an exploded star.
"The Great Observatories program -- of which Chandra is a major part
-- shows how astronomers need as many tools as possible to tackle the
big questions out there," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of
NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. NASA's other "Great Observatories" are the Hubble Space
Telescope, Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope.
The next image will be released in August to highlight the anniversary
of when Chandra opened up for the first time and gathered light on
its detectors. The third image will be released during "Chandra's
First Decade of Discovery" symposium in Boston, which begins Sept.
22.
"I am extremely proud of the tremendous team of people who worked so
hard to make Chandra a success," said Harvey Tananbaum, director of
the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
in Cambridge, Mass. "It has taken partners at NASA, industry and
academia to make Chandra the crown jewel of high-energy
astrophysics."
Tananbaum and Nobel Prize winner Riccardo Giacconi originally proposed
Chandra to NASA in 1976. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra
is in a highly elliptical orbit that takes it almost one third of the
way to the moon, and was not designed to be serviced after it was
deployed.
Marshall manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls
science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center.
A list of Chandra's major scientific highlights is available at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/ten/
To view new images from Chandra and learn more about the mission
visit:
http://chandra.nasa.gov
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